Email asks from prominent women Democratic senators fail to rake in the big bucks in the opening hours of Hillary Clinton’s second presidential run.

WASHINGTON — Fundraising appeals from prominent Democratic senators to their lists Monday didn't quite produce an immediate money bomb for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Clinton has already wrapped up endorsements from prominent Democratic women in the Senate, including New York's Kirsten Gillibrand and Missouri's Claire McCaskill.

Yet, according to a public posting of fundraising totals from email requests sent out by the three women raised very little money in the opening phases of the campaign. Gillibrand asked her list to raise $50,000 for Clinton — as of noon. Tuesday the appeal had raised just shy of $9,000. McCaskill's email raised a little more than $2,000. A fundraising campaign from Hawaii's Mazie Hirono has raised just more than $500.

Screenshot of the totals posted to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising site

The appeals were sent out on Sunday. Gillibrand:

The New York Democrat's appeal was sent to her list just after Clinton announced formally on Sunday and again mid-morning Monday and asked donors to contribute $50,000.

McCaskill:

The McCaskill appeal went out at 3:11 p.m. on Sunday, April 12, according to a copy of the email obtained by BuzzFeed News.

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Olivier, an Obama 2012 vet, will be based at campaign headquarters in New York.

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

As she prepares to hold her first campaign event in Iowa today, Hillary Clinton has added Charles Olivier to her campaign as deputy chief financial officer and controller, according to a Clinton campaign official.

Olivier comes to the Clinton campaign from Smoot Tewes Group, a Democratic political and public policy consulting firm.

He was a senior accountant for Obama's 2012 campaign and will work out of the campaign headquarters in New York. A graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago, Olivier also worked with a student group supporting the school's bid to bring the Obama presidential library to its campus.

The hiring of Olivier comes a day after BuzzFeed News reported yesterday that Jose Villarreal, a Latino with deep ties to the Clintons, will serve as her campaign treasurer. The campaign has also hired Erin Stevens to be the New York political director, and Hans Goff, a veteran political operative who served as Ready for Hillary's South Regional Political Director. Their hires were previously reported by Capital New York, and Politico, respectively.

Last week, BuzzFeed News reported that top officials from the Clinton campaign met in New York City with co-founders of Inclusv, a Democratic group seeking to boost the numbers of diverse candidates for top-level positions in Democratic campaigns.

"I think it's an encouraging start towards building a campaign that reflects the rising American electorate," Rodell Mollineau, a longtime Democratic political operative and consultant working on diverse hiring this election cycle. "Knowing a few of these folks personally I believe they are top notch operatives who will be critical to the success of the Clinton campaign."

Olivier, as well as Stevens and Goff, is black. Over the weekend, campaign manager Robby Mook handed out a mission statement to aides which detailed core values of the plan, one of which was building a diverse team, Politico reported.

"We are a team: we are committed to helping each other succeed to deliver on our core purpose," the memo read. "We are a diverse, talented family: we work together, empower and respect each other, and have each other's backs, especially our volunteers."

“I think personally the actual woman is a tyrannical, cruel, just a giant ego who doesn’t have any — she’s almost like a robot.”

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Vice co-founder and author Gavin McInnes said Hillary Clinton is "ugly" and a "beast" who is "wildly unattractive" as well as "tyrannical" and "cruel"

McInnes was discussing the former secretary of state's campaign swing through Iowa. Clinton launched her presidential campaign this past Sunday and set out on a drive to Iowa from New York in a van.

McInnes left Vice in 2007. He was asked to take a leave of absence last year from an ad agency he co-founded after writing a piece on Thought Catalog titled "Transphobia is Perfectly Natural."

Here's the full comments made on the Steve Malzberg Show on NewsMaxTV:

Look, the real Hillary, I hope she rears her ugly head because she is a beast. And I don't just mean wildly unattractive. There's all kinds of stories of her physically abusing her husband and him having to lie like a battered housewife about a black eye. We know that her and Huma seem pretty good together and their husbands seemed to get real lonely and get up to all kinds of mischief. I don't know what that means but it doesn't look great for her. I think personally the actual woman is a tyrannical, cruel, just a giant ego who doesn't have any — she's almost like a robot. But that's easy to hide and if she does all these what seem like to us totally frivolous, silly things like driving around in a Scooby-Doo van, the American voter is so uninformed, it might turn out great. This sheep's clothing this wolf is wearing might end up working.

Drew Angerer / Getty

WASHINGTON — Last Thursday at noon, Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, sat waiting for a call from the White House. It would be his first such call in 35 years of organizing.

Johnson had been told by White House aides just 90 minutes before to expect the call. When the phone rang, on the other line were two administration officials: Yohannes Abraham, chief of staff in Valerie Jarrett’s Office of Public Engagement, and Luis Jimenez, former policy aide in Rahm Emanuel’s congressional office and an adviser to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. After a cordial but terse conversation about the president’s trade agenda — which Johnson, like the national AFL-CIO, rejects as dangerous for American workers — the White House aides signed off with a warning that Johnson immediately wrote down on the pad he was using for notes during the call.

“We can respect the integrity of your position, but as you lobby your congressional delegation, we would ask that you don’t tear the party apart or wound the party going forward,” Johnson was told.

The idea that his group’s efforts to convince Washington state’s elected leaders to vote against President Obama on trade could destroy the Democratic party itself was a surprise. “I found it pretty stunning,” Johnson said.

And it was weird that the White House was going straight to him, he said. It was even weirder, he said, that the White House thought it could drive a wedge between organized labor in Washington state and organized labor in the nation’s capital.

“Really, why would they do that? They either thought a call from the White House was sufficiently impressive — ‘Can I get you in line?’” Johnson said. “If that’s the case, they’re pretty naive.”

The story is just one of many from recent weeks as the White House executes an aggressive, furious, localized effort to break progressive opposition to one of its top priorities: President Obama’s trade agenda.

"If that’s the case, they’re pretty naive."

Unions, activists, and progressive lawmakers have united against the "fast track" authority Obama seeks to put back into place — a provision that would allow the president to negotiate trade deals and give Congress a simple up-or-down vote. They also oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Asian trade deal that the administration believes would become a cornerstone of Obama’s legacy. Another potential deal with the European Union has also rankled organized labor in the U.S.

Most expected some level of progressive opposition, but not for the issue to turn into a coalition-building rallying cry, drawing in national labor and the high-profile activism of Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a united front. Last month, the AFL-CIO suspended all political donations to focus all its financial resources on fighting the White House trade deals. This week, the group launched a “week of action” featuring a rally of union workers on Capitol Hill and events in every state publicly opposing trade deals. The message is clear: Democrats who cross labor on trade could be on the short end when it comes time for labor to fire up its massive political money machine again.

But progressives have used strong-arm tactics in plenty of fights. On the trade fight, they say the White House is taking its pushback to a new level they haven’t seen. Hour-long calls to lawmakers, secret classified briefings on Capitol Hill, bully-pulpit wrangling by Obama, and even a shadowy new progressive-focused group launched by Obama’s supporters solely to sell the trade deals have all been part of the effort. Obama’s trade opponents see an organized effort by the White House to find any opening in the left-wing anti-trade-deal firewall to exploit — or, failing that, to create one through pressure on activists and lawmakers.

“I don’t know of one crack,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America and one of the most vociferous opponents of Obama’s trade plans. “They’re desperate to find a crack, but they won’t find one.”

Cohen said staff from the major labor unions, environmental groups, social justice groups, and other progressive entities — who are often at odds in the varied and sometimes byzantine world of left-wing political activism — meet once a week at various liberal HQs across Washington to map out their opposition to trade. Staff from Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s offices often attend the meetings, Cohen said. Warren’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The Massachusetts Democrat has not been subtle in her skepticism toward Obama’s trade plans. Last month, she participated in an AFL-CIO conference call with press where she pushed both Obama and Hillary Clinton to better explain trade deals she said “undermine U.S. sovereignty.” Warren has also met with House Democrats at the invitation of DeLauro, who has been holding a number of briefings on TPP and TPA, a House staffer said.

"I don’t know of one crack (in the progressive coalition). They’re desperate to find a crack, but they won’t find one."

But if Warren is lobbying Democrats, so is the White House. The perception of the administration and its allies is very different when it comes to the trade fight. They see organized progressive groups rallying against Obama’s trade agenda out of a political obligation stretching back decades, rather than out of a specific complaint with the deals the White House and its allies proudly tout as forged from progressive values, far more, they say, than deals like NAFTA passed under past Democratic presidents. Plenty of progressives support the administration on trade, they say. The administration insists it's not trying to play favorites among Democrats — or penalize those that stand against them — but rather push back with the facts after an onslaught of negativity released by the organized left.

"We don't see this as a partisan issue," an administration official said. Past trade deals have rankled the left, the administration readily admits, and they say they've taken those concerns into account and even made them a central part of the U.S. negotiating position when sitting down with potential trade partners. Some Democratic opposition was always part of the plan: The administration official noted that Republicans have in the past been the ones to pass trade deals, even under Democratic presidents.

But the White House hard sell to Democrats continues apace. Lawmakers told BuzzFeed News that top administration officials are spending hours working the phones and meeting with Democratic members in an attempt to get them to “yes.”

“It’s been different from my perspective, they generally don’t reach out to me for much,” said Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky. “I talked to [Obama political adviser] David Simas at length about it the other day and what he told me gave me a very different perspective on what was being negotiated and made me think there was an argument to be made for progressives that this deal was a vast improvement.”

Hill aides and Democratic members described the push for TPP and and fast-track — the shorthand name for the provision that would give the president more authority to negotiate trade deals — from the White House as unprecedented. The Obama White House, not known for its cozy relationships with the Democratic caucus, is actively reaching out to lawmakers not used to getting the hard sell.

Part of the remaining problem for the administration, Yarmuth said, was that members feel like they’re in the dark — there’s not enough transparency. The TPP deal is still not complete, for one. And the negotiations with nations expected to be a part of the deal have been closed, as is standard practice.

“If you are negotiating secretly there is a huge vacuum for the other side to rev up their constituencies but you can’t negotiate in public,” he said.

The administration is also lobbying plenty on Capitol Hill. Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative — whose past ties to Wall Street have always made progressives wary — has been to Capitol Hill repeatedly in the last several months to brief members on key committees.

The White House has also hosted several classified trade briefings, where lawmakers are taken into a secure room without staff and not allowed to discuss the proceedings afterward. Those briefings were meant in part to push back on the “transparency” complaint, but many left feeling unsatisfied.

“It was a joke,” said one progressive lawmaker. “There was nothing new in them. People were pissed they had their cell phones and staff taken away.”

The Obama administration believes it has taken real measures to make process open to members of Congress and their security-cleared staff. Fast-track authority, which expired under President Bush in 2007, legally required specific procedures be taken by the White House to keep Congress informed about the status of negotiations before a draft deal was sent to the Hill. The administration claims to have operated as though those rules are still in place, providing repeated opportunities for members to check out the draft proposal as it’s being negotiated. The U.S. Trade Representative keeps two paper copies of the draft deals in secure rooms in Congress for members to peruse, either alone or with a staffer who has security clearance. Like with the classified briefings, members are not allowed to discuss details of classified negotiations publicly.

Some of the transparency problem will be solved when the TPP deal is finally unveiled to the general public — something that might not happen until Congress has already taken a vote on fast track. Progressive advocates worry they won’t see the president’s trade deal before Congress can only vote up or down on the entire deal. Supporters of Obama’s trade policy say that’s a double-edged sword: Giving the Republican-controlled Congress the power to amend trade deals could mean language that protects progressive goals in the deal gets stripped.

The secrecy that often necessarily surrounds trade negotiations has complicated the White House’s hard sell.

"If you are trying to hide it from the public and their elected officials in Congress, maybe it shouldn’t be passing Congress anyway."

"It’s hard to pass this stuff if the public has access to it, but, I mean, if you are trying to hide it from the public and their elected officials in Congress, maybe it shouldn’t be passing Congress anyway," said a former Senate aide and White House official.

The fight over transparency has also bubbled over into the public: Rep. Mark Pocan, a Democrat from Wisconsin, tore into Froman and trade officials during a March press conference after several briefings and accused them of “baffling” Democrats with “bullshit.”

“It's time for the ambassador — if he wants to get this trade deal through Congress — be honest with us,” Pocan said.

There are also signs that for all the extra lengths the White House is going to in order to sell the deal to Democrats, administration officials may not be as plugged into the situation on the ground as they need to be to change minds.

A Democratic member, who currently opposes the trade deal, said that White House officials have been aggressively courting him and trying to argue that business leaders in his district want to see a trade deal get done.

“They were very surprised to hear that no one back home is pushing for this,” the member said. “Labor is basically schooling them on events and outreach in every member’s district.”

A White House aide confirmed that the pitch on trade includes highlighting the support of business, part of a larger jobs and economy message the administration is using to sell the deals to wary Democrats: More trade means more jobs, and more jobs in sectors that can produce middle-class wages like manufacturing, the White House says.

"The president believes strongly that high standards for trade agreements that put American workers first, help our businesses grow and enshrine labor and environmental standards in the core of the agreement are vital to expanding the middle class and raising wages for our workers," said Brandi Hoffine, a White House spokesperson. "Our efforts are focused on negotiating the best possible deal and building a broad coalition in support of that deal. While negotiations are still ongoing, we’ve already seen environmental groups, business owners, local elected officials, national security leaders, economic experts, and many others voice their support for new, 21st century trade deals like the one under consideration."

The sales pitch is really just getting underway in full, though. The administration and particularly the USTR have been meeting with progressives, but have only lately have started engaging with the full power of the White House. An aide to a pro-trade-deal member of Congress agreed that the administration had ramped up their engagement significantly in recent months. Administration officials have been placing op-eds in targeted districts, and officials have been appearing at various trade events throughout the country to drum up support.

Froman, as recently as last week, spent time with Rep. Brad Ashford of Nebraska, talking to businesses about trade.

“The public is aware that they are standing with the president on this issue. The case is made this is something that president wants and the administration is really trying to give cover to these members in their districts,” the aide said.

Pro-Obama trade deal advocates hope that the existence of real trade language, possible in the coming weeks when TPP and other deals are brought before Congress, will soften the progressive opposition. Obama has defended his agenda, saying they put in writing many of the goals on workers’ rights and environmental protections advocates have pushed for, but has also said he’s ready to go around the more ardent members of his party if that’s what it takes to get fast track and trade deals done.

Progressives say the existence of real trade language only strengthens their argument, however.

“Once we have evidence, it will be even easier to make our case,” said Ilana Solomon, director of trade policy at the Sierra Club, one of the groups participating in the ad hoc weekly Washington progressive anti-fast-track coalition. “A bill will make it easier for us.”

“When schedules conflict, he has chosen to spend his time hearing the thoughts of Kentuckians, and will subsequently receive a full report of pertinent information that was missed from staff in attendance at the meeting,” a Paul aide told BuzzFeed News.

Sen. Rand Paul speaks with Fox News television host Sean Hannity.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul oftentimes made television appearances or attended events outside Washington, D.C., on the days he skipped Homeland Security hearings, a BuzzFeed News review found.

BuzzFeed News was only able to verify that Paul attended five out of 73 Homeland Security hearings from January 2014 to today.

An aide for Sen. Paul said he was "one of the most active members of the U.S. Senate" and noted that television appearances or fundraisers usually did not conflict with the hearings and thus couldn't be the reason for the skipped hearings.

"When schedules conflict, he has chosen to spend his time hearing the thoughts of Kentuckians, and will subsequently receive a full report of pertinent information that was missed from staff in attendance at the meeting," a Paul aide said.

In February 2014, Paul missed a hearing on extreme weather events that was happening at the same time he held a press conference with FreedomWorks on suing the NSA in a class action lawsuit. The suit was put on hold in September.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (center), former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (left), and Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, depart a press conference.

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

Paul likewise skipped a Homeland Security hearing on recycling electronics the same day he pretaped an interview at the Capitol for The Kelly File. He discussed the president's surgeon general nominee.

Fox News / Via youtube.com

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No more Madam Secretary. In Iowa, a lot of thought goes into the smallest of details to project her new platform — “champion” for everyday people.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

MONTICELLO, Iowa — For the purposes of the presidential campaign that began in earnest here on Tuesday with a small roundtable discussion, billed as a conversation "with everyday Iowans," there is no Madam Secretary. There is no senator, no first lady. There is no Mrs. Clinton. Her only title is "Hillary."

In campaign press releases and her website — and on a call with senior officials on Monday to prepare for this trip to Iowa, the first of her presidential campaign — the candidate is referred to most often by first name only.

Former secretaries of state, according to protocol, don't technically retain their titles when they retire. They become "Mr." or "Mrs." — or in Clinton's case, "senator," the title she went by during her first run for president in 2008. A campaign aide explained the new shift in simple terms: Most Americans know her as Hillary.

But the decision to cast Clinton, whose two decades in national politics have lent her the stature of a celebrity and stateswoman, as simply "Hillary" is part of a conscious, strategic effort to give this campaign a more accessible, low-key, and voter-focused feeling than her last — with an emphasis on the early-voting state where her campaign faltered seven years ago.

"I'm here in Iowa to begin a conversation," Clinton said. "And to hear from people about what's on your minds — what the challenges that you see are."

The setup on Tuesday was simple and small in scale: At Kirkwood Community College, in an automotive tech lab that could have doubled as a body shop, three tables were arranged in the shape of an open rectangle. Two sedans, a black Toyota and silver Ford, sat on either side, with a pink workman's rag draped over each open hood. About 15 students and teachers made up the audience.

Still, behind a yellow rope, a horde of reporters and a line of television cameras waited. Outside, when Clinton's black boxy GMC van rolled into the entrance past a pair of silos, reporters started to chase it, running down the campus lawn.

Fifteen minutes later, after a brief tour of Kirkwood's advanced manufacturing lab, she arrived. The cameras flashed wildly. Clinton walked straight to the hands of the seven roundtable participants, a mix of students and administrators.

"First, I want to thank you for having me here," she said. "And a few of my friends."

Despite the scene at the small community college, the hour-long roundtable remained, essentially, a genuine give-and-take between eight people. Clinton led the conversation, mostly posing questions to the participants.

In brief introductory remarks, Clinton also outlined four pillars of her campaign: to build the "economy of tomorrow, not yesterday"; to strengthen "families and communities"; to fix "our dysfunctional political system"; and to protect the country "from the threats that we see and the ones on the horizon," she said.

The specifics were less defined, with a handful of exceptions.

Clinton said she supported President Obama's free community college proposal, and voiced support for the education standards known as Common Core.

Expanding on her third point, Clinton said she would support a constitutional amendment to "get unaccountable money out of [politics] once and for all."

Later on Tuesday afternoon, at an unscheduled stop in Mount Vernon, reporters from the Washington Post asked Clinton about campaign finance reform in relation to Priorities USA, the high-dollar super PAC supporting her candidacy.

Clinton, according to the Post, shrugged her shoulders and said, "I don't know."

Clinton announced her campaign on Sunday with a video that projected, with every stylistic detail, that she will not be running with her old "in it to win it" mantra.

The video focused largely on the stories of voters, some of whom were from Iowa, and little else by way of details about Clinton's platform. The candidate herself did not appear on screen until about a minute and a half — another detail meant to signal that, as one senior campaign official told reporters on Monday, the campaign "isn't about her" and "isn't about us."

"You're going to see Hillary interact in much smaller settings than people might expect," the campaign aide said. "This is about Iowans. Everyday Iowans. Their hopes, their dreams, and what they want in the future."

After the launch on Sunday, Clinton headed to Iowa. But instead of chartering a private plane — as she frequently does when traveling — she and two aides, along with Secret Service, drove more than 1,000 miles from Chappaqua, New York, in the Clintons' armored GMC Suburban.

Clinton is scheduled to host another roundtable on Wednesday just outside Des Moines. She and her aides plan to fly commercial back home, an aide said.

Clinton is expected to continue her travel, possibly to New Hampshire, next week.

It is not clear how much more specific Clinton will be, at this early stage in the campaign, about her policy plans — or her message to middle-class voters. On Tuesday, Clinton tied the small-ball approach to the rationale for her candidacy, hanging her campaign on the idea that everyday people "need a champion."

"Believe me, I know that it's not going to be easy," Clinton said. "But I just felt like I couldn't walk away from what I see as the challenges we face."

One of the roundtable participants, Jason McLaughlin, said he didn't have a sense of Clinton's platform. "I don't yet. I'm going to hopefully find out," said McLaughlin, a 40-year-old registered independent who is the principal of nearby Central City High School and supported Obama over Clinton in 2008.

But McLaughlin did noticed a shift in Clinton's style.

"She changed her campaign," he said, noting the road trip, "rather than the 'Hill-A-Copter'" — a chartered aircraft she flew around the state in 2008.

The president of Kirkwood Community College, Mike Starcevich — also on the roundtable — praised Clinton afterward for "purposefully started small." But he also said it was clear "she's still trying to build what she's trying to sell."

On her way out of the event, Clinton told reporters she had a "great drive across the country."

Asked again to explain why she was running for president, Clinton repeated her lines from before: Americans needed a champion.

"I'll be rolling out very specific policies over the weeks and months ahead," she said, heading out the door.

"More to come, everybody!"

LINK: The 20-Year Hillary Clinton Humanization Project

As recently as June 2014, Clinton said a “state-by-state” approach was “working.”

Charlie Neibergall / AP

WASHINGTON — In two weeks, the Supreme Court is due to consider whether bans on same-sex couples marrying violates the U.S. Constitution — an issue Hillary Clinton has not spoken about in almost a year, when she said a "state-by-state" approach was working.

The Obama Justice Department has argued that such bans "cannot be reconciled with the fundamental constitutional guarantee of 'equal protection of the laws.'"

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has not said whether she agrees with that position. Spokespeople for her campaign have repeatedly stated since Sunday that an answer is forthcoming on the question, but no answer has been provided.

Since leaving the State Department, Clinton has made a series of statements on the marriage issue. In announcing her support for marriage equality in a video posted on March 13, 2013, she said of LGBT people, "They are full and equal citizens and deserve the rights of citizenship. That includes marriage. That's why I support marriage for lesbian and gay couples. I support it personally and as a matter of policy and law."

A little more than a year later, Clinton was non-committal on the issue to NPR's Terry Gross.

In June 2014, Clinton told Gross, "I fully endorse the efforts by activists to work state-by-state. In fact, that is what is working." Later, she reiterated that point, saying that, after she left her post as secretary of state, "I was able to very quickly announce that I was fully in support of gay marriage and that it is now continuing to proceed state-by-state."

After Clinton announced this week that she would run for president, BuzzFeed News asked her campaign whether she believe states can ban same-sex couples from marrying or she believes such bans are unconstitutional. The campaign hasn't yet provided an answer.

All of the declared Republican candidates for president oppose same-sex couples' marriage rights. Two LGBT groups — Equality California and LPAC, a lesbian PAC — already have endorse Clinton for president.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the cases — out of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee — on the morning of April 28.

The head of the agency that processes licenses, however, says there will be no decision on the issue until Friday. The letter from Guam’s attorney general came days after a lawsuit was filed against the territory.

Loretta Pangelinan, left, and Kathleen Aguero, pose in front of the U.S. District Court in Hagatna, Guam on April 11, 2015.

Grace Garces Bordallo / AP

WASHINGTON — Guam officials have been advised to begin the processing of same-sex couples' marriage applications, a representative of Guam Attorney General Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

The processing was to begin "immediately," according to a letter from Barrett-Anderson dated April 15, which was first reported by the Pacific News Center.

The head of the Department of Public Health and Social Services, however, told Guampdn.com that there will not be marriage licenses for same-sex couples on Wednesday.

The letter from the attorney general comes two days after a couple who were denied a marriage license, Loretta Pangelinan and Kathleen Aguero, sued in federal court. The federal courts in Guam are within the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which held in October 2014 that Idaho and Nevada's similar bans were unconstitutional.

In the letter, Barrett Anderson writes that "in accordance with the Ninth Circuit's holding, and pending further ruling from the Supreme Court, the Department [of Public Health and Social Services] is herein advised to immediately begin processing of same gender marriage applications, and to review such applications in the normal course of business."

Leo Casil, the acting director of the public health department, told Guampdn.com, however, "From my side, I just received a letter. It's not a legal opinion. It's a letter urging to issue the marriage licenses from the attorney general." He said no decision on the issue would be made until Friday.

Pacific News Center / Via pacificnewscenter.com

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They say key battleground states with huge Latino populations, necessitate a boost in funding for Hispanic groups. Democracy Alliance says Latino funding will now be under a newly created “New American Majority” umbrella.

George Soros, who helped launch Democracy Alliance.

Virginia Mayo / ASSOCIATED PRESS

It was billed as a big announcement, the Democracy Alliance, which advises wealthy liberal donors, unveiled a plan Monday to fund 35 organizations to help Democrats take power power in the states by 2020 and fight back on issues like economic inequality, voting rights and climate change.

But to Latino leaders watching, it seemed like more of the same: public statements that Latino voters matter, but a lack of investment when push comes to shove.

"This is deeply troubling and we're shocked," said Arturo Carmona, the executive director of Presente, a 300,000 member strong organization. "There seems to be a pattern emerging in how the Democratic party is investing in Latinos across the board and how supporting organizations really say that the Latino vote matters but the actions don't reflect those words."

"Given the importance of the Latino vote, it's disappointing and confusing as to why the community isn't being given more attention," said Joe Velazquez, executive director of the NCLR Action Fund, the partisan arm of NCLR. He said he is presenting a proposal to the Democracy Alliance soon to be one of the organizations to get funding after the initial groups.

BuzzFeed News reviewed a list of the 35 groups recommended for funding by the progressive donors. Two groups, the Center for Community Change and PICO National Network, do work on Latino issues and have been active on immigration. But no purely Latino advocacy organization was included.

Other groups that were included on the list by the 10-year-old organization were progressive mainstays like Center for American Progress and Media Matters as well as black advocacy organization ColorofChange.org.

Gara LaMarche, the alliance's president, said no Latino groups raised these concerns to him, but he was glad to address them.

He said that for three years, the Latino Engagement Fund existed, which raised $15 million during the last two election cycles. Now the newly created New American Majority fund will handle funding target toward Latino, black, women, and younger voters, he said.

"This is partly a way to drive more money to it," he told BuzzFeed News. "Or they can earmark to one specific group."

But a top Latino leader with knowledge of how Democracy Alliance has operated in the past said that while the money will come, it will be too late for major Latino efforts on the ground.

"They wait until we're in an election year and say 'Now take this money and let's get people on board,' but a lot of that money comes too late for things like voter registration," the leader said. "To be this close to 2016 and not see one Latino organization, with the Latino vote being so crucial in determining the next president, I hope some reaching out can happen soon."

Latino strategists told BuzzFeed News the focus is of particular urgency because conservatives have gotten their act together, pointing to serious efforts by the Republican Party and the Koch brother funded LIBRE Initiative to reach Latino voters in the Southwest and Florida.

"The right is starting to spend extraordinary amounts of money on this stuff," said longtime strategist and president of NDN, Simon Rosenberg. "They are putting together permanent institutional capacity that's serious and modern that isn't being met by folks on the center-left. It needs to be dealt with on our side."

Jose Parra, a former senior advisor to Harry Reid, pointed to two conversations that stayed with him — one with the political advisor to a major Democratic donor and one with a top Democratic political operative — that show how Latino outreach is often viewed by progressives.

He said in both instances, white men told him that they understood the Hispanic community because they come from states with large Latino populations.

On the contrary, he said, the ones that understand and build relationships are Latinos on the ground, which is why he believes Democrats should fund and create their own version of the LIBRE Initiative.

But LaMarche from Democracy Alliance seemed unconcerned.

"A lot of money from Democracy Alliance goes into Latino communities and exceeds what the Koch brothers are doing with LIBRE," he said.

Hector Sanchez, chairman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, a coalition of 39 of the top Latino organizations in the country, said in his experience democracy is expensive and investment in Latino communities lags behind every other group.

"Everyone talks about the possibility of the Latino vote but there is no correlation in how parties and national infrastructures invest in Latino civic participation and promotion of basic elements of democracy like voter registration, voter education, GOTV and voter protection," he said.

The other top Latino leader was more succinct on Democracy Alliance's actions.

"It's disappointing to see that in this cycle they would not yet be directly engaging Latino organizations with proven track records," they said. "We need to start now."

“People do not like having foreign soldiers quartered in their land. That’s why we rebelled against the British.”

Alex Wong / Getty Images

RAND: You know, the Giuliani thing I think is hilarious. Here's a guy who has 9/11 printed on his chest and everywhere he goes he beats that drum and he hasn't even read the 9/11 Commission. And the 9/11 Commission was a bipartisan commission. It was by no means any kind of partisan statement, but they readily admit that the main reason the terrorists say they came here is because we're over there, because we have bases in their land and they don't like it.

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Sen. Jeanne Shaheen introduced the bill Tuesday. She wants to a panel of citizens to suggest a woman in history for the honor.

The nonprofit Women On 20s has been campaigning to replace Andrew Jackson with a woman on the $20 bill by 2020. Now Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, has also introduced legislation with the same goal.

The measure introduced Tuesday, which will first go to the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, calls for the Secretary of the Treasury to convene a panel of citizens.

They would make recommendations to the Treasury about featuring a woman on the $20 bill.

Darren Mccollester / Getty Images

So far, nearly a quarter million people have cast votes on the nonprofit's website in the final round for who they will nominate for the bill: Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, or Wilma Mankiller.

Shaheen doesn't have a particular woman in mind, Nickel said. Asking a panel to decide is a method that has precedent in the 1920s, the last time the Treasury chose new portraits for U.S. currency.

Women On 20s

Women On 20s will still accept votes as a separate initiative from Shaheen's and keep working toward their ultimate goal of sending a petition to the White House for consideration.

Changing currency does not require congressional approval, but Women On 20s is still glad to hear their mission keeps spreading.

"We were very pleased to have Sen. Shaheen's support because we know the White House would probably like to know that Congress is behind this," Women On 20s executive director Susan Ades Stone told BuzzFeed News.

Women On 20s

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“Her grandparents always spoke about the immigrant experience and, as a result she has always thought of them as immigrants,” a spokesperson says. “As has been correctly pointed out, while her grandfather was an immigrant, it appears that Hillary’s grandmother was born shortly after her parents and siblings arrived in the US in the early 1880s.”

Clinton in LeClaire, Iowa.

Charlie Neibergall / AP

Speaking in Iowa Wednesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that all her grandparents had immigrated to the United States, a story that conflicts with public census and other records related to her maternal and paternal grandparents.

The story of her grandmother specifically immigrating is one Clinton has told before. Clinton's sole foreign-born grandparent, Hugh Rodham Sr., immigrated as a child.

"Her grandparents always spoke about the immigrant experience and, as a result she has always thought of them as immigrants," a Clinton spokesman told BuzzFeed News. "As has been correctly pointed out, while her grandfather was an immigrant, it appears that Hillary's grandmother was born shortly after her parents and siblings arrived in the U.S. in the early 1880s."

We are turning down people who really want to work. I mean they are here to work And a lot of them now have children who are American citizens, and they are doing the best they can to try to make a good life for themselves and their families. And you know, I think if we were to just go around this room, there are a lot of immigrant stories. All my grandparents, you know, came over here and you know my grandfather went to work in lace mill in Scranton, Pennsylvania and worked there until he retired at 65. He started there when he was a teenager and just kept going. So I sit here and I think well you're talking about the second, third generation. That's me, that's you. And we are saying to all these other people who want the same dreams and the same aspirations and the willingness to work hard just like our families did that no, we're not going to make it easy for you, we're not going to make it legal for you. And I just think that's such a short term, unfortunate outcome for us and well as for them.

Clinton was speaking at Capital City Fruit in Norwalk, Iowa, when she made the comment. Here's the video:

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“Before we went to war with Iraq, there had never been any al-Qaeda or even a suicide bomber in the history of that country.”

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Given the gravity of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are many basic logistic and commonsense questions that should be asked, but rarely are. Would a war on street gangs in which police invaded and occupied Chicago be effective in getting rid of street gangs nationwide? How about the fact that before we went to war with Iraq there had never been any Al-Qaeda or even a suicide bomber in the history of that country? After we invaded, this was no longer the case.

Is it possible that decades of arguably far more intrusive behavior by the United States in Islamic nations has also had an effect on those populations, encouraging and increasing the threat of Islamic terrorism? The CIA created the term blowback to describe this phenomenon and the 9/11 Commission Report cites blowback as a primary cause of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"And while Americans a lot of times don't want to hear this, my dad says, 'What would it be like if Fort Bragg were full of 50,000 Chinese soldiers? How many North Carolinians would be planting roadside bombs every time the Chinese drove outside their base. People do not like having foreign soldiers quartered in their land. That's why we rebelled against the British. We didn't like their soldiers here," Paul said then, as BuzzFeed News reported yesterday.

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The prospective presidential candidate had long, wavy hair and a mustache.

Optional soundtrack…

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George Bush Presidential Library and Museum

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The former governor of Maryland implies Hillary Clinton might be changing positions based on polls.

Darren McCollester / Getty

Martin O'Malley mostly stuck to his policy of keeping his distance from Hillary Clinton's campaign Thursday at the Institute of Politics at Harvard. O'Malley was there to give what his supporters called a detailed economic speech laying out O'Malley's vision for the future.

But there were signs that O'Malley is getting closer to taking Clinton on more directly than he has in the past.

In a press gaggle before the Harvard speech, O'Malley called Clinton out for her recent shift to full support for drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants and support for a national same-sex marriage decision that would remove the choice over same sex marriage recognition from the states. Both moves represented a shift for Clinton from her 2008 campaign, when she initially opposed drivers licenses for the undocumented before changing her mind, and when she opposed same sex marriage as a national policy along with other Democrats in the race.

O'Malley suggested polling has something to do with Clinton's new positions.

"I'm glad Secretary Clinton's come around to the right positions on these issues," O'Malley said, before noting Maryland's move to acknowledge same-sex marriage and allow licenses for undocumented immigrants during his time as governor.

"I believe that we are best as a party when we lead with our principles and not according to the polls. And every election is about the future," O'Malley said. "And leadership is about making the right decision, and the best decision before sometimes it becomes entirely popular."

So, a reporter asked, does Clinton lead by the polls?

"Let me say that I'm glad Secretary Clinton has come around to the right positions on both these issues," O'Malley said. "I believe marriage is a human right, not a state right. I'm glad she's come around to that position as well. I believe that we do our country a disservice when we make it harder for new American immigrants to abide by the rules of the road and obtain drivers licenses. And I'm glad she's come around to that position now too."

O'Malley's Harvard speech was a big play to progressives in the homeland of progressivism's brightest star these days: Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. Channeling many of Warren's agenda items, O'Malley called for a hike in the minimum wage indexed to inflation, boosting access to overtime pay, making it easier for workers to unionize and increased funding for education and research. Tougher financial market regulations and a government unafraid to prosecute Wall Street executives was also on the agenda.

O'Malley also took on President Obama, calling for the president's trade policy to be defeated. The former Maryland governor formally joined the broad coalition of progressive groups condemning White House trade proposals like fast track and the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"We must stop entering into bad trade deals — bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership — that hurt middle class wages and ship middle class jobs overseas," he said. "And we certainly shouldn't be fast tracking failed deals."

O'Malley's response to continued bipartisan pressure to cut the costs of expensive entitlement programs? "Rather than reducing Social Security benefits or privatizing Social Security, we need to expand Social Security benefits," O'Malley said.

After the speech, O'Malley said he'd pay for the expansion by raising the earnings cap on Social Security payroll taxes as well as rely on more money coming into the system after a comprehensive immigration law overhaul that would provide a path to legal status for 11 million undocumented workers.

He made LGBT rights a central part of his economic agenda in the speech. Laws like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed in Indiana were the same as racist and sexist rules from the nation's past O'Malley said stifled economic growth. An economy that allows "the grit, the desire, the skill, the love of family, and creative capacity of every person" to flourish is the strongest one possible, O'Malley said.

"'Signs that once read "No Irish Need Apply,' or 'no women,' or 'no blacks,' or 'no Jews' have become sad relics of our past,' O'Malley said. "This is why the next generation of Americans so universally rejects state laws that discriminate against gay and lesbian Americans."

Clinton’s political director Amanda Renteria reached out to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to set up meetings with Latino business owners in early states, BuzzFeed News has learned.

Hillary Clinton at a 2008 rally in Salinas, Calif.

Paul Sakuma / AP

Hillary Clinton has reached out to meet with Hispanic business owners in the early stages of her campaign.

Clinton's political director, Amanda Renteria, played phone tag with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president Javier Palomarez for a week before connecting with him Saturday to deliver the request: events with the candidate and Latino business owners and community leaders, according to a source familiar with the conversation.

Palomarez confirmed the conversation in an interview with BuzzFeed News.

"The conversation was early in the process to give guidance and direction," Palomarez said. "She said the campaign will be deliberately and openly engaging the Hispanic community."

On the call, he said he got the sense that the outreach to Hispanic business owners is part of a focused approach towards local markets, but isn't just about connecting with the community in a state like Nevada that has a large Latino population, but also in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, where you might not expect the political need to do so. "We don't want to leave anyone out. This is for everybody," he said was Renteria's prevailing message.

"Hillary Clinton has a long, proven record of working with and for the Hispanic community to strengthen our families and our communities," Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson told BuzzFeed News in an email. "Strengthening the Hispanic community is a top priority for Hillary, so her campaign began outreach on day one of the campaign."

That outreach puts an early spotlight on Renteria, who was the first Latina chief of staff in the U.S. Senate and a 2014 congressional candidate, and her role behind the scenes as the campaign gets underway.

Renteria also went on MSNBC Tuesday to talk about the campaign rollout. She came prepared with a response to a jab by Marco Rubio during his Monday presidential announcement, where he called Clinton the candidate of "yesterday."

"She's talking about the future, and when you do look at yesterday, you look at all the fights she's been waging long before this campaign," Renteria said. "Whether it was helping kids make sure that they got education, disabled kids, and she went door to door. She's been fighting for healthcare for kids and for moms and for women. That's who she is, and what we're working on now, what she's working about and talking about is the future."

Palomarez stressed that the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce works with both parties.

On April 29, the organization will hold a question and answer session with Ted Cruz and Hispanic business executives in Washington and is also trying to schedule Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley at the same event, who has suggested he will run against Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

The growing electoral influence of Latino voters means Hispanic issues will never be too far from the presidential conversation. This week the Clinton campaign clarified her stance on licenses for undocumented immigrants, saying she supports them, a departure from what is considered a 2008 miscue, when she released a statement before a debate saying she would not support licenses in favor of an immigration overhaul.

O'Malley hit Clinton for changing her stance in a speech at Harvard Thursday.

Still, Clinton did not lose to Obama in 2008 because of the Latino vote — in fact she beat him 2-to-1 among the constituency, according to Pew, and has a long history with them dating back to the 1970s.

Those ties are expected to be put to the test if she becomes the nominee, with announced candidates like Rubio and presumed candidate Jeb Bush also expected to push for Hispanic support.

A substantial increase in budget, double the staff focused on Latino outreach, and a blueprint based off big 2014 wins in Florida and Colorado. But will starting earlier than ever in Latino communities be enough to fix its damaged brand with them?

Brennan Linsley / AP

Maria del Carmen Weese, a retired volunteer with the Colorado Republican Party, was skeptical.

It was June 2014 and she was getting ready to hear the Republican National Committee (RNC) blueprint for reaching Latino voters in the state in the midterm elections. She had seen this before, of course, the word outreach being thrown around, but then as soon as elections are over, everyone packs their bags and leaves. So her request was simple: she would volunteer and work her ass off for the party if they would commit to staying past election day.

Jennifer Sevilla Korn, the RNC's deputy political director, who presented the blueprint, told her they would.

So Carmen Weese, 58, went to work. Colorado Republicans went to everything from the Peruvian festival to county fairs and events with churches and businesses, together totaling 70 events reaching 223,000 people between June and November, according to records the local party kept.

Republicans across the country won in a wave election for the party, but Colorado boasted two wins the RNC attributes to their strong Latino outreach. Cory Gardner defeated incumbent Mark Udall in the U.S. Senate race by less than 50,000 votes, but made a 10,000 vote improvement in a place like Pueblo county, which is 42% Hispanic. Rep. Mike Coffman defeated Andrew Romanoff in a district that became majority-Democratic after 2010 redistricting, learning Spanish, and taking part in Univision's first-ever Spanish-language debate in the state.

The Cuban-American Carmen Weese, who put 1,900 hours into Latino outreach was elated, but resigned to the national party high-fiving and leaving town. Then she got a call a week after the election.

"They called me and said we're here through 2016," she said. "I knew then that all the efforts and the hours that I put in did not go to waste."

Buoyed by victories in Colorado and in Florida, the RNC feels it has a blueprint for how to win support from Hispanic voters. Of the $10 million strategic initiative announced after the 2012 election for the midterms aimed at Hispanic, black, and Asian voters, the largest chunk was spent on Latino outreach, with more than 40 staffers spread across 10 states including the Southwest battlegrounds, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas.

Now the RNC says it is raising the strategic initiative budget "substantially," with plans to double paid staff to more than 80 in those states.

But Republicans also readily admit that they have a long way to go with the Hispanic community nationally, where the brand is damaged after searing fights on immigration policy that have often cast them as out of step and sometimes as racist in certain wings of the party. Democrats say Latinos will respond to policies that make their lives better, not empty words and outreach, no matter the impressive level of resources deployed on the ground.

"They can dedicate all the money in the election to the Latino vote but how can they defend the offensive nature of the immigration debate, wanting to repeal Obamacare, and opposition to the earned income tax credit?" said Gabriela Domenzain, who ran Hispanic media for the Obama campaign in 2012.

"Republicans are their own worst enemies."

This is the earliest Republicans have launched a national Latino outreach effort, according to the RNC. And they've put an emphasis on repeating what worked in 2014, even if that midterm electorate was very different than most presidential ones. That starts with candidates willing to do the outreach.

Gardner, for example, went to Fiestas Patrias, a raucous 92,000-person celebration for Mexican independence, where he was followed by Univision in September.

In Florida, Rick Scott who eked out a win over Charlie Crist in the governor's race, mounted the earliest and most expensive Spanish-language television ad campaign in Florida history, held a recurring Hispanic pastors' breakfast, and unveiled ads weeks before the election with popular former governor and presumed presidential candidate Jeb Bush telling voters to support Scott in Spanish.

"It's important that you have a candidate who's willing to make the Hispanic community a priority," the RNC's Korn told BuzzFeed News.

A Florida Democrat close to the governor's race said this explanation for Scott's success is oversimplified. Scott, the Democrat said, split the Hispanic vote when he ran in 2010, but lost it by 20% in 2014. The Democrat gave another reason for his win.

"They bought everything, they walked into Spanish radio stations and said, 'We will buy everything that's available,'" the source said.

The numbers back up the contention. An election eve memo by Crist's pollsters found that at the end, Scott was pumping $1,200 a minute into TV ads.

Democrats acknowledge that the RNC Latino outreach machine is impressive, especially as it relates to what their party is doing, and say Democrats need to wake up before 2016.

"Democrats should give more resources, we have a whole lot more at risk if we don't engage the Latino community in 2016, we have to match them and then some," said DNC Hispanic Caucus chair Iris Martinez, a Chicago state senator. "We are the crucial vote, the party needs to spend a whole lot more money in places where the Latino population is high and we have to do it early on."

Domenzain said the entrance of Marco Rubio and expected candidacy of Jeb Bush, who is fluent in Spanish, raises the bar for all Hispanic outreach for both parties, especially for Democrats.

"Folks that come from Florida know the differences [within the Latino community]," she said. "They never had a Republican contender with such deep ties to the community, one that speaks the language. When your principal speaks the language, that's a different playing field."

The DNC waved away concerns about RNC initiatives in an email to BuzzFeed News.

"Almost every Republican running to be the leader of their party supported an effort to shut down part of the government, because they wanted to stop a policy that would keep immigrant families together," said DNC spokesperson Holly Shulman, referring to the fierce opposition to Obama's executive actions from Republicans that would shield more than 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and is currently undergoing legal challenge.

"The fact is no amount of new hiring or new programs will be able to make up for having the wrong policies on issue after issue."

The DNC has had some hiring difficulties so far: the party has not hired someone to oversee its Hispanic media efforts nationally.

Andres Ramirez, a 20-year veteran Democratic strategist in Nevada said for all the criticism of the DNC, they identified in 2003 that the Latino community wasn't monolithic — that Nevada has a higher immigrant population, for example, and in Colorado and New Mexico you're dealing with third and fourth-generation Hispanics. The GOP, he said, is just playing catch up.

Republicans acknowledge that their biggest challenge is convincing Latino voters that the party doesn't have animosity towards them.

The RNC told BuzzFeed News that the perception the Hispanic community has of Republicans may be negative, but when they go into their communities, and stay there, and share their message, things can change.

Korn said the biggest problem was that in the past Republicans weren't present.

"How can you change someone's mind if you aren't there?" Korn said. "The door has to be open, it doesn't mean we will always get their support but opening the door and having them listen is very important."

Carmen Weese, the Colorado volunteer, said first of all, people don't really like you knocking on their door. The Republican Party kind of made things worse.

"The pushback was awesome," she said. "They came out and argued with us, they were angry. They said, 'What are you doing here now, you're here now because of the election, right?'"

So what did she do?

"We listened, we acknowledged their concerns," she said, which can have a positive effect in the long run. "When a person has a good experience, they will tell more people."

“…it creates this massive electorate that will likely vote in large numbers for Barack Obama and his party, just like African Americans have done so after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act… “

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Republican Rep. Steve King says President Obama's executive action on immigration was done to create an entire class of voters for the Democratic Party. King, an immigration-hardliner from Iowa, says Obama's move is reminiscent of African-Americans voting for Democrats in large numbers following the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"To put it simply, the President is importing millions of illegal aliens who when they arrive here he thinks, and he's right, they are undocumented Democrats, and so the next phase of this is to document these Democrats so they can vote," King told the Virginia radio program, the John Fredericks Show on Thursday.

King likened the executive action on immigration to President Franklin Roosevelt's plan to add seats to the Supreme Court in the 1930s when the court was challenging New Deal legislation.

"This is the President of the United States trying to stack the electorate with millions of people, lawlessly bringing them into the United States of America and giving them a presence here, and thinking and realizing that the longer you can keep them here the less likely it is that they will go home," added King.

King called the Democratic Party "the beneficiaries" of the action. King said many undocumented immigrants "don't understand the law" because "they come from lawless counties.

"And they will see Barack Obama and his party are the beneficiaries, that they are the beneficiaries of his lawlessness. They don't understand the law, they come from lawless countries. So they're not at all likely to defend our Constitution or the rule of law. They take an oath to it when they are, when they are naturalized, and I speak at those services as often as I can."

King said Obama's action would create a "massive electorate" that votes for Democrats the same way the 1964 Civil Rights Act made African-Americans vote for Democrats.

"It erodes the politics of this country, the respect for the rule of law, and it creates this massive electorate that will likely vote in large numbers for Barack Obama and his party, just like African Americans have done so after Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which by the way took the majority of Republicans in the House and Senate to make sure that that passed."

The 1930s historically marked the first large for African-Americans shift to the Democratic Party but party identification remained even until the 1948 election, according to data from the Joint Center for Political Economic Studies.

The three judges gave no indication of their eventual ruling in the challenge over last year’s immigration executive actions as the Obama administration and state officials square off.

Demonstrators outside the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Gerald Herbert / AP

NEW ORLEANS — The Obama administration and a coalition of 26 states squared off in a federal appeals court Friday over the White House's controversial deportation deferment policy.

Although the hearing was ostensibly focused on whether the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals should lift a federal district court judge's hold placed on the program, both sides spent much of the two-plus hours arguing over the broader legality of the administration's actions.

The hearing ended without a ruling and without any timeline on when it would come.

Arguing for the administration, Ben Mizer, the acting head of the Department of Justice's Civil Division insisted that Obama's November executive action is simply based on existing law allowing the administration to make broad decisions on what people to seek to deport and for whom to defer action.

Mizer argued that if the states are right and they have the ability to challenge the programt, they "can challenge an individual decision, like an asylum decision" — which could have broad, unintended consequences.

But Scott Keller, the Texas solicitor general, argued for the states that the basic underpinnings of the program are illegal, insisting the order "makes unlawful conduct lawful …. [I]t is an affirmative change to immigration status and it has legal implications."

The three judge panel of Judges Jerry Smith, Jennifer Elrod, and Steve Higginson gave few hints on how they would rule on the motion to stay the trial court's decision putting the executive action on hold. However, Elrod seemed skeptical of much of Mizer's argument, repeatedly peppering the DOJ lawyer with questions about the scope of the orders, whether it is appropriate to provide undocumented immigrants with work permits and potentially federal benefits like Social Security, and other issues.

Likewise, Higginson seemed deeply skeptical of the states' arguments, as well as the district court's rulings on the case. At one point, Higginson mused that the current controversy is a direct result of a conflict between the White House and Congress, noting "Congress could change this like that" — snapping his fingers. "That's political jockeying the courts should stay out of," he said.

Presiding Judge Jerry Smith was the most inscrutable of the three. Never engaging in serious back and forth with the attorneys, Smith only asked a handful of questions about the application of Massachusetts v. EPA, a climate change-related case that relates to the preliminary question of whether the states have the ability to sue the administration over the program.

Following the arguments, Smith noted, "[W]e don't generally have oral arguments on motions such as this, but it was extremely helpful," before adjourning the court without issuing a decision.

In another case, the 5th Circuit ruled last week that states did not have standing to challenge DACA, Obama's previous executive action protecting immigrants who arrived as children. This ruling was based partly on the fact that Mississippi, which brought the earlier lawsuit, only considered the fiscal harm that deferred action would cause without analyzing its potential benefits.

Some legal observers say this is a good sign for the administration, because it suggests that the 5th Circuit will apply the same standard to the Texas suit, making it more likely to lift the injunction. "I find it difficult to see how the plaintiffs are going to overcome that standard in light of what the very same circuit court said a week ago," said Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, a professor at Penn State Law who studies prosecutorial discretion and has filed briefs in favor of the administration in the Texas case.

Even as the new deferred action programs remain in limbo, immigrant advocacy groups around the country are preparing for the programs to be implemented — assuming a victory for the administration. The New York Immigrant Coalition, for example, announced a vast training program today aimed at preparing volunteers from social services organizations to help immigrants sign up for the programs, modeled after the community navigators who helped people sign up for healthcare in the early days of the Affordable Care Act.

The former Texas governor summons Washington’s right-leaning opinion-makers ahead of a likely 2016 campaign announcement.

Darren McCollester / Getty

Rick Perry's aides are quietly inviting conservative journalists to an off-the-record happy hour in Washington next week — an event that some invitees believe will serve as prelude to the former Texas governor's presidential campaign announcement.

Emails from the Perry camp — one of which was passed along to BuzzFeed News — instruct recipients that they must RSVP to learn the exact location of the April 21 gathering, and include a note that the invitation is "not transferable."

Writers at the Washington Examiner, TheBlaze, Breitbart News, Townhall, and RedState, among others, have received invites.

At least some of the invitations were sent by Erin DeLullo, a Republican fundraiser and operative who recently joined Perry's political action committee as "national coalitions director." DeLullo — who has worked for conservative insurgents like Sen. Ted Cruz and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli — specializes in connecting Tea Party-aligned candidates with well-funded, influential institutions on the right, like Club for Growth. Her portfolio will also apparently include working to generate buzz for Perry in Washington's conservative press, where many harbor doubts about his 2016 prospects.

Perry entered the last presidential race to much fanfare in late 2011, but his repeated viral gaffes and painfully clumsy debate performances — combined with an immigration position that some conservatives found heretical — led to one of the more spectacular meltdowns of the 2012 Republican primaries. And while his record of job-creation in Texas and deep ties to the Religious Right make him a well-regarded figure to many in his party, Perry's flame-out continues to loom large.

"There's huge skepticism," said one of the conservative journalists invited to the happy hour, adding, "Everyone likes him, but they don't think he has a shot."

The invitee said Perry's happy hour will likely be aimed at persuading conservative opinion-makers that his imminent presidential bid is a credible one. But he believes Cruz's entry into the race gives Perry little room to maneuver. "Most have already cast their lot with a tough-talking conservative from Texas. And it's not Perry," he said.

DeLullo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Good evening,

I wanted to invite you to an off the record happy hour with Governor Perry on April 21st from 4:00-5:00pm.

Please rsvp by April 19th and I'll send you the location.
This invitation is not transferable

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Best,

Erin DeLullo